quite friendly, and they talked about a reciprocal visit sometime.
For all the camaraderie, the visitors were anxious to be on their way, and the people of the Cave were thankful when they were gone. They were not accustomed to many visitors, unlike the Ninth Cave, which was located in the midst of a richly populated region. It was one reason that Camora still missed her family and friends. She was determined to make sure the Cave did make a return visit, and if she could, she was going to persuade her mate to stay.
After they started out again, it took the travellers a few days to settle back into a comfortable itinerant mode. The composition of the new group of travellers was quite different from the one they had started out with, primarily because there were more of them, and more children, which prolonged the time it took to move from place to place. As long as it had been just Jonayla, who often rode Grey, they moved at a fairly rapid pace, but with two more youngsters who were old enough to use their own legs, and a younger one who wanted to walk because the other children did, their rate of travel had inevitably slowed.
Ayla finally made the suggestion that Grey should pull a pole-drag for the three children to use while Jonayla rode on her back. That helped the travellers to move a little faster. The trekkers settled into a very practical routine with all of them contributing to the well-being of the group in their own way.
As the season progressed and they continued in their southerly direction, the days grew warmer. It was generally pleasant, except for an occasional rainstorm or muggy heat spell. When they were travelling or working in warm weather, men often wore a breechclout and perhaps a vest, plus their decorative and identifying beads. Women usually wore a loose, comfortable sleeveless dress with slits up the sides for ease of walking, made of soft buckskin or woven fibres that went on over their head and tied at the waist. But as the weather warmed, even light clothing could be too much and they stripped down more. Both men and women sometimes wore only a thong or short fringed skirt and some beads, the children not even that, and their skins turned nut brown. A natural tan, slowly acquired, was the best protective sunscreen, and though they didn't know it, a healthy way to absorb certain essential vitamins.
Zelandoni was becoming more accustomed to walking and Ayla thought she was getting slimmer. She had little trouble keeping up, but she always insisted upon riding on her pole-drag when they arrived at a new location. People made a commotion when they saw her being pulled by a horse, which she felt added to the mystique of the zelandonia and to the position of the First Among Those Who Served The Great Earth Mother.
Their route, which was worked out by Zelandoni and Willamar, took them south through open woods and grasslands, along the west side of a massif, a highland that was the leftover stump of ancient mountains, ground down by the passage of time, with volcanoes forming new mountains on top of the old. Eventually they turned east swinging around the bottom of the central highland and then continued travelling east between the southern end of the highland and the north shore of the Southern Sea. As they travelled they often saw game, birds and animals of many kinds, sometimes in flocks or herds, but except when they stopped to visit settlements, no people crossed their path.
Ayla found herself truly enjoying the company of Levela, Beladona, and Amelana when they weren't visiting another Cave or Summer Meeting. They did things together with their children. Amelana's pregnancy was beginning to show, but she was no longer troubled by morning sickness and the walking was beneficial for her. She felt well and her vibrant good health along with her obvious show of maternity made her even more attractive to Tivonan and Palidar, Willamar's assistants. But as they continued the Donier Tour, stopping to visit various Caves, Summer Meetings, and Sacred Sites, there were many young men who found her equally attractive. And she enjoyed the attention.
Since Ayla was often with Zelandoni, the young women were learning some of the knowledge that Zelandoni was teaching her Acolyte. They listened and sometimes joined in on their discussions about various things — medicinal practices, identifying plants, ways of counting, meanings of colours and numbers, stories and songs of the Histories and Elder Legends — and the Donier seemed to have no objection to passing her wisdom on to them. She knew that in times of emergency it wouldn't hurt to have some additional people around who knew something about what to do if they needed to act as assistants.
Travelling east, they found their way often blocked by rivers that came down from the massif and into the Southern Sea. Since none of the rivers were huge, they became adept at crossing them until they came to one that carved a large valley running from north to south. They turned and followed it north until they came to a tributary that joined it from the northeast and followed it.
A little beyond that, the travelling group came to a pleasant area of open woodland on the edge of an oxbow lake. Though it was early afternoon, they stopped and set up camp amid some brush and grass near a copse of trees. The children discovered a large patch of bilberries before the evening meal, and picked some to share with their elders, but they ate more as they picked. The women saw huge stands of cattails and phragmite reeds at the edge of the water, and the hunters found fresh signs of cloven hooves.
'We're getting close to the home of those that live the closest to the most important Sacred Cave of all the Zelandonii,' Willamar said, after they built a fire and were relaxing with a drink of tea. 'We're a large group to be visiting and asking for hospitality without bringing something to share equivalent to our size.'
'It looks like a herd of aurochs or bison stopped here not too long ago, judging from those prints,' Kimeran said.
'They may return to the water to drink here regularly. If we stay a while, we could hunt them,' Jonokol said.
'Or I could go look for them on Racer,' Jondalar said.
'Most of us are running out of spears to hunt with,' Jondecam said. 'I broke another one the last time we went hunting, both the shaft and the point.'
'This looks like a region that should have good flint,' Jondalar said. 'If I can find some, I'll make new points.'
'I saw a stand of straight trees on our way here, younger than those in that copse, that would make good shafts,' Palidar said. 'It's not far away.'
'Some of those bigger ones would make good shafts for a couple of new pole-drags to bring some fresh meat to the Cave we want to visit,' Jondalar said.
'A few young bulls at this time of year would give us fresh meat and some for drying, and fat for travelling cakes and fuel for lamps, and a hide or two,' Ayla said. 'We can make new footwear from the skins. I don't mind walking barefoot most of the time, but sometimes I want protection for my feet and my footwear is wearing out.'
'And look at all those cattails and reeds,' Beladora said. 'You can weave footwear from those, too, and we can make new sleeping rolls, and baskets and pads and many other things we need.'
'Even gifts for the Cave we want to visit,' Levela said.
'I hope we don't take too long. I'm awfully close to home, and I'm getting anxious,' Amelana said. 'I can't wait to see my mother.'
'But you don't want to return empty handed, do you?' the First said. 'Wouldn't you like to bring a gift or two for your mother, and maybe some meat for your Cave?'
'You're right! I should do that, so it doesn't look like I'm just coming home begging,' Amelana said.
'You know that you wouldn't be begging even if you didn't bring anything, but wouldn't it be nice to give them something?' Levela said.
Chapter 24
They all decided it was time to take a few days to hunt and gather food to resupply their travelling larder, and restock equipment that was showing signs of hard use. They were excited about finding a place with such abundance.
'I want to get some of those berries. They look perfect for picking,' Levela said.
'Yes, but first I want to make a picking basket, something to wear around my neck so I can use two hands to pick,' Ayla said. 'I want enough to dry some for travelling cakes, but then I need to weave a mat or two to dry them on.'
